


Happy Little Accident

by Minutia_R



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Crack Theories, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Chapter 15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 12:07:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11417631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: One little mistake.





	Happy Little Accident

The nights were too bright, and Anne-Mari’s baby was teething and keeping the entire household awake. Jukka and his new wife weren’t exactly quiet either. Onni, since he couldn’t sleep, took out his kantele to practice and struck a wrong note and all at once the pressure of sound and people became too much. Ensi felt the urgent need to stab something, and if she had stayed in it would almost certainly have been a member of her family, so she went out. Out to the forests in the small gray hours, alone and in a murderous mood.

That was how it started.

It was a little mistake. Less than others had made. It was so small that Ensi didn’t even notice until years later. By that point it was too late.

#

The smell of stewing mutton and mint filled the kitchen, and Sigríður had to duck outside, gulping breaths of muggy summer air and fighting down a wave of dizziness and revulsion, even though it was her favorite dinner. Or it usually was. There had been four times in her life before when the smell of it had taken her exactly this way, so she knew what she was feeling.

She’d been worried the first time she’d missed her period, more than a year ago, but she’d also known she was getting older, and with the night sweats and the unfamiliar aches it wasn’t hard to guess what it meant. Her doctor had told her the same thing: oncoming menopause. So after several months had gone by and her blood hadn’t put in an appearance, she and Árni might have started getting a little careless with their birth control.

Clearly, that had been a mistake.

#

Reynir wasn’t depressed. He wasn’t! He was just thinking about his life. And his choices. And stuff.

Definitely the worst one was leaving home in the first place. But there were lots of bad choices to choose from. Hiding in that tuna crate. Ever leaving the tank once he’d gone in. If he hadn’t been standing next to Sigrun when that troll attacked--if she hadn’t thrown her arm up to protect him--at the very least, she wouldn’t be feeling so bad now. And who knew what else might have gone differently?

He should never have run to Onni for help when they were attacked. Now Onni was in a coma, and he hadn’t been able to save Tuuri from getting bitten anyway. And Tuuri--how come the troll had bitten her when there was another, equally non-immune, and much more stupid, useless and expendable person sitting _right there?_ That wasn’t the way it was supposed to go!

And now the tank had broken down, and--okay, Reynir couldn’t quite figure out how that one was his fault. But probably it was somehow. He’d been nothing but bad luck to all of them.

A thump from the other side of the partition drew him out of his thoughts. It sounded like Kisa was hissing. “Hello?” said Reynir. And then when the was no answer, “Tuuri? Uh … is anyone there?”

There was another strangled sound, and then quiet, and Reynir couldn’t go out to investigate because it was a risk. It was another half an hour or so before anyone bothered to come and tell him what was going on. And the look on Mikkel’s face when he opened the door--

There had to be some mistake.

#

One second, Reynir was staring up at the low roof of a tent, convinced he was never going to be able to sleep. The next second, he was opening his eyes in the dreamworld.

Somebody had to tell Onni, and Reynir was the only one who could. Onni was going to be mad enough to kill him. Maybe Onni _would_ kill him. That would--that would solve a lot of things, actually.

Reynir walked to the edge of the water. Looked out across the expanse of ocean between his place and Onni’s. Kept walking along the shoreline.

Left foot. He had to. Right foot. He couldn’t. Left foot. He had to.

And then he came to a place that he’d--he’d been avoiding it, he realized. Ever since the very first time he’d woken up in a dream in the prow of a boat. He saw that boat again now, tied off to a rock on the edge of a waterfall. And he had the sick sensation that he knew where the waterfall led.

Finally, he forced himself to take a step onto the water. Not towards Onni’s place. Towards the boat.

He was probably making a big mistake. But that was the story of his life, wasn’t it?

**Author's Note:**

> In the immortal words of Bob Ross, there are no mistakes, there are just happy little accidents.
> 
> Remember how when Onni first met Reynir and he thought he was a potentially-harmful spirit? Remember when Onni told Lalli, "it's looking for us again" but the one who actually found them was Reynir?
> 
> Yeah, I'm not sure what if anything that means either.
> 
> But this train of thought was inspired by some recent [speculation](http://usuallysublimepenguin.tumblr.com/post/162641597939/i-refuse-to-believe-that-weve-seen-the-last-of) [on tumblr](http://vefanyar.tumblr.com/post/162652403290).


End file.
